


one day we might get it right

by withoutwords



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dating, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 00:31:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19162150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withoutwords/pseuds/withoutwords
Summary: It’s no big deal. He wasn’t here to make friends anyway.





	one day we might get it right

**Author's Note:**

> I had an anonymous request on tumblr for “robron, awful first meeting”, and sort of moulded it more into “a series of bad meetings”, haha. Hope you enjoy it anon!

Robert’s been back in Emmerdale for less than half an hour when his car breaks down, he spills his coffee on the upholstery, and the rain starts thundering down the minute he steps out his door. It’s the clearest warning sign he’s faced since he found a string of weird texts on his ex-fiance's phone.

They should never have gotten engaged. And he shouldn’t have come back here.

“Hello, brother of mine,” Vic says in her usual too-chirpy voice when Robert calls her. “What do I owe this very rare surprise?” 

“Yeah, hi, Vic, look,” he grumbles, shaking water from his hair. “I’m out by Lloyd Farm and my car won’t start. Could you give me the number of that local place so I can get a tow?”

“Lloyd -  _ you’re in the village _ ?”

“No, I’m in Cardiff - yes I’m in bloody Emmerdale!”

“Well you never said!”

“It was a last minute thing,” he tells her with a sigh, deciding that arguing is pointless. He can’t blame her - he has been gone a long time. “Sorry, can I just get that number?”

 

*

 

By the time the truck is trundling up the road, it’s been over half an hour and Robert’s near frozen a testicle off. He takes a few deep breaths to settle some of his anger, then steps out to greet the mechanic - only to be splashed from head to toe as the truck continues past him.

“You idiot!” Robert yells when the guy gets out. He’d come straight here from work - not only was his good suit drenched through but now it’s splattered everywhere with mud.

“Sorry, mate,” he says, but he looks like he’s trying not to laugh. Robert has to wipe mud from his face with his sleeve - and the rain’s starting again. Perfect.

“I’ve sat here forty minutes waiting for you and now I find out you can’t even drive properly?”

The man’s face turns sour. “Alright, it was an accident.”

Robert resists the urge to growl,  _ you’re the accident _ . “Can you hurry up and get me out of here already?”

“I’ll just take a look under the hood.”

“I don’t - can’t you take it into the village? I’m staying there.”

“Sure, but that’ll cost,” he says, already ignoring Robert and pulling some tools from the back of his truck. “I’ll take a look, see if I can get it running and you can drive it yourself.”

Robert decides to stop arguing. The thought of being here any longer isn’t ideal - but he’d rather not be without a car for a day or two if he can help it. He might not last the night in Emmerdale.

 

*

 

It’s only another ten minutes and Aaron - the mechanic - has the engine purring again. Robert used to work on cars himself, but he has to admit; the kid seems to have a knack for it. Robert could have sworn the problem was going to be a lot more serious than some minor tinkering.

“Thanks,” Robert says sincerely, pulling out his wallet and fishing through for whatever cash he has left. 

“You’ll have to come into the shop,”Aaron says with a wave of his hand. He still seems put out by the idiot comment. “You can sort out your account there.”

“Right. Should I follow you?”

“Just do it whenever.”

Robert calls out another thanks as the guy walks away, but he just waves his hand again and disappears into the truck.

It’s no big deal. He wasn’t here to make friends anyway.

 

*

 

Robert had met Chrissie at some swank dinner party. A guy he’d been dating - Nathan, Australian, with a very nice … accent - had been invited through work, and wanted to have a plus one. Nathan had spent the night schmoozing some rich people and Robert had spent the night flirting with Chrissie, and two weeks later they were shagging all over her apartment.

Her very luxury apartment.

Robert wasn’t too big of a man to admit that a big part of her appeal was her money. Once he’d left home - left Andy, and Katie, and the bollocks that was his childhood - he’d never been big on heartfelt romance. He met people he liked, he had fun with them - but he’d tried not to get too attached. 

“Ben,” Robert is yelling into his phone, ignoring the impatient attendant holding his extra large coffee and waiting for payment. “Ben, I told you, I’m out of town for a few days.”

Robert finally manages to wrestle his card out to tap and pay as Ben is arguing, “But Rob, the Martin’s - ”

“Tell them my Grandma died or something, I don’t care,” Robert tells him, swinging around and somehow managing to upend his coffee all over Aaron The Mechanic. It would probably be hysterical if he was sitting somewhere else and watching the whole thing. But from here, it’s not all that amusing.

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” Robert apologises, grabbing at some napkins from the counter and trying to help clean up the mess. Aaron just wrenches them out of his hands. 

“Are you kidding me?” he shouts, glaring at Robert as if he’d planned the whole thing.

“It was an  _ accident _ ,” Robert says, the sarcasm not going unnoticed.

“Do one,” Aaron bite back at him, then turns and shoulders through the crowd behind them as he’s wiping at his clothes.

Things really aren’t working out.

 

*

 

Robert spends a day and a half hiding, before Vic manages to convince him to go out for tea. It’s a stupid idea - the village is so small you could put it in a snowglobe - the last thing he needs is to run into his brother, or Katie, or possibly even worse - 

“Aaron,” Robert groans when they get into the Woolpack. He’s sitting by the bar with some other young guy, the two of them laughing over their pints. It’s actually the first time Robert’s seen him in anything but his coveralls. 

“What?”

“Aaron.”

“Dingle?” Vic asks, because apparently there’s more than one Aaron in their general vicinity. Robert scoffs.

“Of course he’s a Dingle - wait, Chas’ son?”

“Yeah. He lives here. Why? Did you hook up with him or somethin’?”

Robert splutters and wonders where her mind comes up with these things. “ _ What _ ?”

“Well, he’s gay, you’re bisexual, it’s possible aint it?”

“We didn’t hook up, it’s just … every time we’ve met it’s been a bit of a disaster.”

Vic just laughs at him and leads him over to a table, while Robert does everything in his power to avoid eye contact. He wants to get out of this place soon, and he’d rather have a few days of peace. 

After all the drama with Chrissie, he thinks it’s the least he can ask for.

 

*

 

Robert gets knocked out cold with a door.

He’d been going into the loo and apparently someone had been coming out and the next thing Robert knew he was flat on his back with Diane slapping his face and yelling out his name. It wasn’t the first time he’d been levelled but it was probably the least dignified.

“You’ll be alright, love,” Diane tells him, coming over to where Robert’s sprawled out on someone’s couch and giving him some ice for his head.

“Did anyone get the license plate?” he asks jokingly, and someone in the corner clears their throat.

“Uh, it was me. Sorry.”

Robert looks over to see Aaron, hunched and biting at a thumbnail. If Robert weren’t in so much pain he might laugh. “Right. Of course it was.”

“Well I didn’t mean to!”

“And I didn’t mean to spill coffee, but I think we know which one’s worse!”

“Ssshhh!” Diane hushes them, giving them those glares she’s perfected over the years. “You two, fighting like children. Now Aaron, why don’t you head back out and Robert, just rest back and I’ll turn these lights off, yeah?”

Robert can’t argue.

 

*

 

When Robert wakes up the next day he has a throbbing headache and a comforter thrown over him - still on the couch. It takes him a while to get his bearings - where he is, what he’s doing here, why he hasn’t left this godforsaken place yet. Truthfully, it’s because he doesn’t want to go back there yet. He doesn’t want to answer everyone’s questions, or listen to everyone’s advice or deal with everyone’s pity.

She cheated on him. She didn’t die.

“Fresh brew if you want it,” a voice says as Robert sits up and spots Aaron over at the table eating breakfast. He groans, and not from the pain.

“You knocked me unconscious and won’t even make me a cup of tea?”

“Ya legs still work,” Aaron bites back.

“You hope.”

Robert can’t deny the fact that a fresh pot of tea will probably solve a few of his problems right now - so he gets up to go and get it. It’s a poky little kitchen, mismatched and outdated - but it’s nice. It makes Robert think of his mum.

“Vic says you used to work at the auto shop.”

“Long time ago,” Robert says croakily, sitting at the table with Aaron and wiping blearily at his face. “Forgot a lot of it, to be honest.”

“Doubt it,” Aaron says, slurping at his milk. Robert pulls a face. “Like riding a bike, innit?”

“Maybe.”

“So what’d you do now?”

“Property management. Buying, selling, that sort of stuff.”

“Right. Been in it long?”

“Yeah,” Robert admits, and squashes down the sudden thought of  _ too long _ . 

“Anyway,” Aaron pops up suddenly with his bowl and mug. Robert almost wears it, but he rebalances himself at the last minute and gives Robert a lopsided smile. “I’m off. Catch ya later.”

 

*

 

A day passes, and then another, and Robert still hasn’t thought about going back. He’d taken his car into the shop to pay Aaron - but he’d had to deal with Cain Dingle instead. He’d checked Robert’s car over just in case - given it a little tune up to make sure it was running well - and had eventually gotten the tick of approval. There really was nothing keeping him here now, other than his reluctance to leave.

“Robert,” Andy says when they bump into each other at the cafe. Robert feels his stomach leap up somewhere near his throat. “I heard you were in town.”

“And here I am.”

“You’d probably wanna stay clear of Katie.”

Robert laughs humourlessly. It’s a shame what they’ve done to their relationship - him and his brother - but he’s not sure it can be mended now. He’s not sure it’s worth it. “Trust me, there’s not a town small enough to make us cross paths.”

“Good. Well.” For a horrifying moment Robert thinks Andy is going to shake his hand. He doesn’t. “See ya.”

Once Andy has gone, Robert hears a scoffing laugh from one of the sofa chairs by the wall. It’s Aaron, with a paper open, giving Robert a teasing grin. “Nice family reunion?”

“Shut up,” Robert says, but there’s no heat in it; going over with his coffee to sit as well. “It’s been a long time since we saw each other.”

“I can tell. I thought my family were bad."

"Oh, they are."

Aaron flips him the bird. "And Katie?”

“Very long story.”

Aaron just grins again and sets his eyes back on his paper. He’s good looking - Robert hasn’t missed the fact - and he clearly has a fit body hiding under all those clothes. But maybe he’s a little too …  _ nice _ for Robert? He’s not sure. He’s always gone for people with more cunning eyes. Teasing mouths.

“Look at this,” Robert says, tipping his cup. “A whole five minutes and we haven’t sprayed or tipped or hit each other with something.”

Aaron huffs. “Go team.”

“I better get out of here before you trip me over or something.”

“You’re funny.”

 

*

 

Robert decides just to take his annual leave. He mostly works for himself there - once he puts on his sob story about losing his fiance and not knowing what the future holds, most of his clients tell him to take all the time he needs. Besides, it’s not a total lie. He had planned to settle down with Chrissie. Take over her father’s business and make a lot of money.

It may not have been true love - but it stung.

“You’ve always been full of get rich quick schemes, you,” Vic says when Robert tells her about his latest venture.

“Chrissie left me! I had to do something.”

“What about doing something you enjoy?”

“Well I don’t  _ hate _ it. And it’s good money.”

Vic just rolls her eyes at him. “Anyway, I promised Adam we’d meet him and Aaron at that new place in Hotten tonight. Code Red. Or is it Blue?”

“I’m not being your tag-along because you’re nervous about a boy."

“He’s not a  _ boy _ . And you’re not tagging along. Aaron told him to invite ya.”

“He did not,” Robert scoffs at her, feeling something stupid in his guts turn over. Aaron can barely look him in the eye, as if he’d want him coming out for a drink.

“Did so.” Vic waggles her eyebrows. “Maybe you two might hit it off.”

 

*   
  


It’s not the worst date Robert’s been on - if it’s even a date - but it rates pretty high up there. Robert ends up with a beer in his lap, and Aaron ends up with a bruised cheek, and the both of them end up getting kicked out for having a stupid row in the middle of the dancefloor. Robert can’t even remember why they started arguing, but he figures it has a lot to do with the fact they can’t stand in the same space without messing it up.

Robert’s never met someone who can make him so crazy.

“Why don’t we just share a taxi?” Aaron says as they sit on the curb nursing their wounds. 

“Seriously? We’ll probably end up having a crash at this rate.”

“Don’t be daft. We’re going to the same place.”

“Yeah.” Robert grumbles, still wiping at his beer soaked legs that are now smelling more like yeast and fermentation. “Fine. Whatever.”

They don’t talk as they wait for their lift, or even when they get in the car. They don’t talk until they’re about five minutes from home and Aaron lets out a little laugh, looking at his phone. “Adam and VIc are having a better night than we are.”

“Everyone’s having a better night than we are.”

“Fair,” Aaron says, pocketing his phone. “If you’d just taken the pint I gave you - ”

“I didn’t want it! If you had been watching where you were dancing - ”

“How’d I know you were the worst dancer in the world?”

“Sod off!”

“Fellas!” their driver shouts, Robert realising they’ve stopped. “We’re here.”

Robert hurries to pay while Aaron climbs out of the car and soon they’re standing in the middle of the road, circling one another. Again. If this were any usual date, Robert would charm the person inside. But it’s a small town - his home town - and he doesn’t know how long he’s sticking around.

“I should,” Aaron says, pointing a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the Woolpack.

“Yeah, I should…” he agrees, but then the streetlight hits Aaron’s face and Robert can’t help appreciating that body in those jeans and he hears himself say, “Nightcap?”

 

*

 

Outside, or at the cafe, or in the Woolie - the two of them are a disaster. Here, in Robert’s bed, with no one around and nothing to stop them, they’re really, really amazing. Sure, it’s been a while since Robert’s had sex and he was probably long overdue. But he knows it’s not that. Aaron is just so, so good at this. At getting to the right places and giving him the right pressure and making these incredible sounds while Robert’s dick is half way down his throat.

They go twice, and are too worn out for a third, and fall asleep twisted in each other and twisted in the sheets.

Robert wakes up feeling better than he has in months. He stirs, and smiles to himself, and reaches for Aaron in the hopes they might muster some energy to go again. He’s gone. Robert sits up to look around, but he’s alone in the room. He throws some pyjama pants on to head to the kitchen - but there’s no one there either. It doesn’t even look like Vic’s come home.

**where are you?** he texts Aaron, but there’s no response.

He’s out of his depth. He’s not used to being the one that gets the shaft, and he doesn’t like it. Didn’t they have a really good time in the end? Didn’t they spend as much of the night talking and laughing together as they did having mind blowing sex? Wasn’t it fun, and exciting, and …  _ right _ ?

This is why Robert doesn’t get attached.

He showers and eats, and tries not to feel too sorry for himself. He tidies a little, does some washing, and even sits down to watch some television but gives up after half an hour of some reality show drivel. It’s pointless. He puts on his best jeans, and his best jacket, and goes to the Woolpack.

Aaron's there, chatting happily with Adam. When he meets Robert’s eye he looks guilty.

“Alright, mate?” Adam says with a laugh when Robert walks over. “Thought you might not show your face today.”

“Why’s that?”

“After you two embarrassing yourself at the club?”

“Oh. Right.” Robert just looks at Aaron, who still won’t look at him. “Can we talk? Somewhere private?”

Adam makes a noise around the last gulp of his pint, climbing off his stool. “I’m off anyway. Mum needs some help with the ram. Have fun boys.”

Aaron makes a gesture that says he has no desire to be left alone with Robert, but Robert doesn’t care. He takes a seat and calls to someone behind the bar to bring him a drink. “Why’d you run off?”

Aaron ducks his head, playing at the brim of his glass. “I didn’t. I just had stuff to do.”

“I’m not an idiot, Aaron. You’re not interested. I get it.”

“I don’t - ”

“But at least have the courtesy of telling me, instead of running away.”

“I’m not running away,” Aaron growls, leaning in close to Robert, his cheeks a little pink. “I just don't want to be your fun little shag while you’re home for a holiday, alright? Let it go.”

 

*

 

Aaron had been surprisingly honest with Robert the night they’d spent together. About past relationships and issues with his mum and wanting to get out of the village one day - but maybe come back to settle if he was lucky. He’d told Robert about his favourite foods, and his funniest memory, and how one time he’d been locked in the bathroom at school and got to miss a whole day of class.

He was a nice guy. Nicer than any one Robert had been with. But he liked it.

He liked Aaron a lot.

“I mean, you can’t blame the guy,” Vic says as they share breakfast. “You could be going home any day.”

“Well, sure. But it’s not like he didn’t know that, going into it.”

She stabs at her eggs and shrugs. “Aaron’s not a one night stand kind of guy. He might be feeling weird about it.”

Robert was a one night stand kind of guy. He’d had a long string of them. He knows that Aaron’s nothing like those times. “So what do I do?”

 

*

 

Vic tells him to  _ make an effort _ , as if the concept is completely foreign to him.

Except making an effort with Aaron, surprise surprise, turns out to be a total flop.

For starters, it takes the better part of two days to convince Aaron to take him seriously. To convince him to even speak to Robert and believe him when he said it wasn’t a game. They could be friends, couldn’t they? They didn’t have to end it so badly.

Robert’s attempts at proving that just get worse and worse.

When Robert has flowers delivered, Aaron ends up having a sneezing fit and rushing out of the house. When he tries to give him some tickets for the movies, they get messed up with someone else’s tickets to some weird kinky art thing that Aaron just looks at with horror. When he tries to take him out for dinner their booking gets lost and they have to eat by the bar and they can’t even hear each other talk.

It’s a disaster.

But Robert just likes him even more.

“Why’re you doing this to yourself?” Aaron says after their most recent issues with trying to help Zac get unbogged on the road. They’re head to feet in something brown that Robert knows isn’t strictly mud.

“I just want to show you that … this is good. I don’t know.”

“Why?” Aaron grunts as he throws aside a ruined rag, Robert picking it up to wipe his hands. “Aren’t you leaving soon?”

“I guess.” Robert says, and then decides to be honest. “I don’t know.”

“What?”

“Well… I don’t know what I’m going back to. A boring job. An empty house. Friends that haven’t even checked up on me.”

“So you … you might stay?”

“Maybe… I mean…”

The next thing Robert knows, he’s flat on his back with Aaron on top of him, kissing him so hard it bruises. He fists his hands in Aaron’s top, and Aaron pulls at Robert’s hair and it’s really, really disgusting.

“You should. You should stay, please. I want you to stay."

It’s perfect. 

 

*   
  


The first time someone asks, “How did you two meet?” the story goes something like this:

_ It was awful. I splashed him with mud, he was a prat. Awful, mate. Awful. _

After they’ve been asked a few times, though, and thought about it more, it changes, it evolves, it sounds like:

_ Well, we just kept meeting, y’know? We kept bumping into each other. Like we got chance after chance until we finally got it right. Felt like fate, mate. It was fated. _

It's a really great story to tell.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr.](thefancyspin.tumblr.com)


End file.
